CaT Reviews: Echo Echo Omnivurs Overwrite!
This is the ninth episode of CaT Reviews!, this time featuring Echo Echo Omnivurs Overwrite, as requested by Echoson! Intro Yeah, I don't usually have this section, but I wanna point out a couple of things. #I know this review wasn't listed on the schedule or the waiting list, and I wasn't planning on reviewing anything for a while, but Echoson made a special request to have this done for EEOO's anniversary. ##What can I say? I'm a sucker for anniversaries. #Three CaT Reviews! episodes in less than a week. My body has begun to break down at the atomic level due to the strain of MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE mode. Alright, on to the review while I'm still alive! Story This is a pretty unique series in that it's told mostly via comics. Said comics are made in MSPaint, and unfortunately look about as good as you'd expect from that. Good thing I never made crappy MSPaint comics, nope, never, not at all, that would just be embarrassing and definitely not something I ever did, and certainly not so much that I made an entire website for them, that definitively never happened. CaT Reviews!: The Prequel (Coughs violently) Okay, before we get anywhere else, I just want to point out this line from the 'Trivia' section. I chose doing comics because writing is unoriginal, but it will still be in it. "writing is unoriginal" I mean, you're not wrong per say, but that's usually not seen as an issue. This series centers around the lives of Omnitrix aliens, Echo Echo and his friends in particular. Echo Echo has an Omnitrix for reasons that are never properly explained, but since this series seems to be mostly comedy-based, it's not like you need an extensive backstory. ---- The first episode/comic/whatever begins with Echo Echo and Cannonbolt deciding to go on an 'adventure'. Brainstorm (who I guess is in charge or something) asks where they went, and Heatblast (who is also there) replies with: Heatblast: Go to the most stupidest place they would be Okay, I know that line is probably just 2013 Echoson not knowing how grammar works, but still: We cut to the beach, where Echo Echo transforms into Feedback to play volleyball with Cannonbolt. During the game, they accidentally get sand in Vulkanus's (who was resting nearby) eyes. Naturally peeved by this, Vulkanus hops in his body suit, and after a short chase scene where Feedback times out, Ditto appears for no reason, and Echo Echo transforms into Ripjaws, he defeats Vulkanus by tossing his suit in the water in a very unfortunately designed panel that makes it looks like the two are sharing a passionate kiss in the ocean. Vulkanus's suit rusts and becomes unusable pretty much instantly, which, while raising serious safety concerns about the oxidant content of that saltwater, evidently doesn't phase our hero. Later, we see Echo Echo as Fasttrack finding Cannonbolt having built a sandcastle for Brainstorm to live in. Said castle swiftly gets destroyed by a misplaced plastic shovel (don't ask me how that works), and the gang returns home, ending the comic with a little 'wrap-up' section where each character says what they did today. ---- The second comic begins with Blukic and Driba doing what they do best: Ruining a series Screwing something up. In this particular case, they screw up destroying the Ultimatrix, creating an explosion that sends it flying to who knows where. We then see a scene of Ben fighting Trumbipolar (I don't care if that's not how you spell his name, I made a crappy pun and I'm sticking to it), then switch to a scene of someone landing in an alleyway (I think). I'll admit, this is where the visual storytelling starts getting pretty jumbled, so it's kinda hard to tell what's going on. We see Cannonbolt and some weird Ghostfreak-looking alien named Spooky talking to what I think is an NRG/Eatle hybrid named Ultraghost (none of this is ever made clear, so your guess is as good as mine). They're gearing up to fight, but Spooky times out and turns back into Echo Echo. Before anything can happen, Clockwork shows up and makes Ultraghost...disappear? Clockwork detransforms, revealing himself to be Swampfire wielding the Ultimatrix, who proceeds to introduce himself as Echo's new partner. After Swampfire demonstrates a transformation called 'Explodingblackbomb' (no punctuation), we cut to Echo protesting the idea of having a partner, but he gets shot down by Brainstorm, who has him and Swampfire go train. They have a short sparring match, after which Swampfire suggests that he trades Clockwork for one of Echo's aliens, and then the comic ends. ---- The next episode begins with Echo Echo finding a strange red button, which Swampfire tells him not to press. Since telling someone not to push a button has never worked in the history of mankind, Echo pushes the button, which teleports him to Dimension 23. He meets his alternate counterpart, and we cut to Swampfire apparently entering a portal courtesy of Ampfibian. We cut back to Dimension 23, where Echo is going through his transformations to see what his Dimensions 23 counterpart calls them. They're the standard Ben 23-style names, with Wildmutt being Dognabbit, Shocksquatch being Electricyeti, and Pesky Dust being... "Tickle Elf" "TICKLE ELF" We get a short scene of Echo 23 (apparently named Sonic) asking Echo if he likes Gyro, which is followed by a flashback of Echo drinking a smoothie and saying it's disgusting, then cutting back to the present, where Echo replies 'no'. Okay, couple things here: #What does drinking a bad smoothie have to do with Gyro? #Gyro ain't too fond of you either, bub. We then get a scene of Swampfire using Ditto to look for Echo, which is interrupted by an evil version of Echo named 'Volume' popping up out of nowhere and fighting him. Sonic and Echo quickly find him and swiftly end the fight, with Echo and Swampfire heading home after that. ---- The next episode is a written episode about Ben this time. It's basically about Ben spilling lemonade on the Omnitrix, causing a glitch that puts the Omnitrix symbol on his butt. That's, like, the entire episode. It's just It's just one long butt joke What do you even want me to say about this I mean there's this quote from the episode: Rook: It is still on the butt. And that about sums it up So Moving on The next episode is both written AND a comic, which is somewhat tempered by the fact that it's incredibly short. Ben beats up Trumbipolar, but Jimmy gives him peanuts and he gets big. That's about it, but at least we got a decent reaction image out of it: (offendedben) Emoticon when (Edit 7/22/16): (offendedben) Emoticon now The next comic is a 'movie' about Echo breaking the Omnitrix while fighting Volume and going to get it fixed, which is hampered by Volume creating a white version of Malware named Halware to go after him. Yet another tragic case of whitewashing in Hollywood. He fails, obviously, and Echo ends up getting the Omnitrix fixed. Not all is ending well, however, as somewhere, in an unknown cave, there is a green oval on a dark gray background! Seriously though what was up with that. ---- The next episode is a Halloween special about Ben and the gang trick-or-treating, with a short fight with Attea for whatever reason. Also Frankenstrike can now shoot fireworks from his hands, so hey, there's that. ---- The next episode begins with Echo eating some weird beans given to him by some random Ectonurite, clearly showing that Echo never learned the ins and outs of stranger danger. Later that night, Echo goes to bed, gets abducted by aliens and wakes up in...uh...nacho prison. A 'To be continued' card follows this, but since said storyline was never finished and the last two episodes of the series are Christmas specials, I think we can safely assume that Echo being trapped in nacho prison forever is the canonical end of the series. ---- The next episode is a Christmas special about Echo and Cannonbolt entering Brainstorm's mind to see how he thinks. This one wasn't finished either, so I really don't even know what to say about it. ---- The last episode is a Christmas/New Year's Special where Ben and Rook go to London and Albedo escapes from prison to do...something, I don't know. This comic was never finished either, so it's hard to tell. For some reason, the human drawings in this comic in particular are even more off than usual, making it read a lot like Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff. Next EEOO villain is Stairs confirmed. Characters I don't even know how to analyze these characters, to be honest. They're just sorta flat archetypes put into weird situations, and while this can definitely get a laugh now and then, it may not be for the reasons intended. Writing The writing here is pretty bare-bones, which, sure, is to be somewhat expected of a comic, but it feels like things just kind of happen without any buildup or explanation. I already said you don't need much backstory for a comedy series, but clueing the audience in on what the hell is actually happening would be nice once in a while. Humor Here's a section I don't usually have! Since I'm reviewing a comedy, a big part of whether it succeeds as a series is the humor, and the humor here is...alright, I guess. There are some fun lines, but a lot of it feels very forced, and sometimes it just doesn't show up at all in some of the more action-oriented comics. I will say, however, that you might be able to get some good laughs out of it in a "so bad it's good" way. (For example, the last comic has a panel where Gwen looks disturbingly similar to Gooby) Bon pls Conclusions Alright, so, I haven't been very nice to this series, I admit, but what do I actually think about it? Well, it's not good, (far from it, if I'm being honest), but it's innocent and charming. It won't make you pull out your hair, and you'll probably get some decent laughs from it. It ain't winning any Oscars, but I'd still recommend it. (Though this may be my own nostalgia for making crappy comics talking) And so, my final rating for this series is ''4.7, Comic-ally Bad''. Category:Reviews Category:Anniversary Specials Category:Specials